Southern California San Diego - hotel 1 night

[LisaCM614]

We have a house booked in La Jolla before our trip up to Anaheim.
Our flight into San Diego changed and now we need a one night hotel.
We'll be arriving in San Diego around 11AM local time. We are traveling from the East Coast so I really wanted a beautiful beach resort to stay at.
My travel agent sent me 3.
Paradise Point
Catamaran
The Dana

The Dana seems to have some pretty rough reviews on Yelp and Tripadvisor.

Any opinions on any of the 3? We realize there are less expensive places to stay and could have a nice stay at the Embassy Suites - but I really want beach or bay front - something to see the Pacific and some place that fits my family. Sometimes finding places that fit 3 kids is hard!

 

[bellanapoli]

Have you looked at either the Hotel Del Coronado or the Lowes Coronado?

All the 3 you've listed are more Mission Bay than Pacific Ocean.

 

[sonnyjane]

Have you looked at either the Hotel Del Coronado or the Lowes Coronado?

All the 3 you've listed are more Mission Bay than Pacific Ocean.

 

[LisaCM614]

Agreed but Loews doesn't have rooms for families of 5 and the Coronado is $600 for a room to fit the 5 of us. Too pricey for me!

 

[sonnyjane]

Agreed but Loews doesn't have rooms for families of 5 and the Coronado is $600 for a room to fit the 5 of us. Too pricey for me!

Ok, if you want a "beach resort" then don't go with The Dana. As mentioned it's just on the bay. Technically they all are on the bay, not the ocean, so no waves etc. to play in. I'd recommend Catamaran then. It has the best "beach" setup.

 

[bellanapoli]

Good grief. I had no idea it was that pricey! That's pretty ridiculous.

Let me prephase the below by first saying the hotels you've listed are nice and Mission Bay is a nice area. For staying one night, I think you'd be perfectly happy at any one of those resorts. But, I got the impression from your email you're looking for more of a "quintessential" California experience. If that's the case, a purely Mission Bay-view hotel probably wouldn't be my first recommendation. It's nice - we go paddle boarding and biking around the bay - but just not my first choice given everything else in the area.

If you like that area in terms of proximity to the airport, I'd recommend a Mission Beach hotel that's on the ocean side. Mission Blvd runs down a fairly narrow strip where the ocean is on one side and the bay on the other. Even if you're staying on the bay side, you have easy access to the ocean which has a nice boardwalk.

If you're still thinking purely bay views, I'd probably look at either downtown or Harbor or Shelter Island. Those areas will give you views of the SD bay looking out to the ocean. Shelter Island, you'll also get views of downtown SD.

Hope that helps.

 

[LisaCM614]

That is really helpful. We don't need proximity to downtown and were hoping for the ocean. The house we are checking into is in La Jolla Shores but not on the beach and no view. You gave me good clues in searching through the 270 hotels in San Diego! Thanks!

 

[kkmcan]

Not sure if you booked your hotel yet but I wanted to chime in and say that our absolute favorite is Paradise Point. It is on the bay so no waves and it gets lots of bad reviews mostly for the ridiculous parking and resort fees but we still pay it and love it. The bungalows have been renovated or should I say redecorated but they are older (built in the 50's, I think) so that's another reason for the bad reviews.

We haven't found any other resort hotel that fits our needs the way PP does. They are all 1 story bungalow style rooms (no tower). The resort is huge and layed out like a tropical getaway. There are multiple pools and hot tubs and mostly importantly the resort is surrounded by beach. You can walk right out to the sand. There are firepits scattered on the beach around the resort and you can pick up smores supplies and firewood in the giftshop, although pricier than stopping at a store.

We go with a big group of families and we all head out to the firepit in the morning and start it up cuz its chilly. We plan our day or just hang out on the beach all day, swim in the pools, play games in the sand, etc then we head out for late lunch or dinner and then back to our firepit for smores and chitchat around the fire. So fun!

We look forward to our vacation there every year.

The Dana although on the water has a rock retaining wall so no sand or beach. The Catamaran has a small beach with sand and is similar to PP but no firepits. We've stayed at both of those and they were fine but we just prefer PP.

 

[LisaCM614]

Thank you - we decided to stay at the HyattRegency. We will go to Seaworld the next day so that works just fine. Now to plan on how to get DH to his number 1 choice - stone brewery!

 

[ImDMous]

Thank you - we decided to stay at the HyattRegency. We will go to Seaworld the next day so that works just fine. Now to plan on how to get DH to his number 1 choice - stone brewery!

Haha, funny. We also are beer tourists. We live about a mile from Stone but last summer we went to visit my relatives in New York and took a long drive to Dogfish Head in Delaware. It was really fun.

Anyway, there are tons and tons of breweries within a few miles of us so if you have time try to catch a few, although I know Stone is the most well-known and the gardens are beautiful!

 

[bellanapoli]

There's a Stone Brewery restaurant in Liberty Station. May not be the same as an actual brewery tour but it's closer and they have all the beer.

 

[LisaCM614]

Beer tourism! What a great concept! Maybe the Liberty Station place will work just fine. He knows how beer is made we've gone on several tours in VT- He is just is super passionate about the Stone beers lol. I am excited for all of the great local beers in San Diego! What a huge list of local breweries. Very fun. Looking forward to nice nights out on the patio in La Jolla enjoying a good beer! aaaa c'mon June 30th!

 

[Tommy_B]

Thank you - we decided to stay at the HyattRegency. We will go to Seaworld the next day so that works just fine. Now to plan on how to get DH to his number 1 choice - stone brewery!

I am hoping you booked directly with the Hyatt Regency and are in a Tower room. If you've used a 3rd party booker to get the lowest rate you can they will stick you in the Bay1 and Bay2 buildings, which are old and awful. The Hyatt doesn't even offer those rooms on their site, they are only sold through 3rd parties.

Oh and yes, Stone did build a brewery in Liberty Station, right next to the SD airport. There is also a top question in trip advisor about all the breweries, micro brews, etc.

 

[LisaCM614]

My travel agent booked through the website.
We have a waterfront suite. Is that one of the problem areas?

 

[Tommy_B]

My travel agent booked through the website.
We have a waterfront suite. Is that one of the problem areas?

No, if it is waterfront suites from the Hyatt site, those are great rooms.

It is the Bay 1 & Bay 2 rooms that people book through 3rd parties like Expedia, Hotels.com, etc that become problematic.